Consider Using a VPN: More Privacy for All Your Traffic

One option for anonymous browsing and privacy for other types of network traffic is using the Tor network which has been covered in a few articles here before. But although traffic is encrypted within the network when bouncing between relays, plain text over Tor is still plain text. Other problems are the slow speed and connectivity issues users may be facing with a volunteer network, user-unfriendly configuring of exit nodes and switching them on demand, and the fact that Tor is not suited to stream large files and video content, if only not to abuse donated bandwidth.

Staying Anonymous with Tor: How to Specify Exit Nodes by Country

This update draws on an older article but is pared down to the basics of specifying exit nodes when routing traffic through the Tor network for people who for various reasons want to be in control of where they seem to come from. As you will be aware, Tor bounces traffic between three different nodes and randomly rotates exit points. You may prefer to appear to be located in a particular country.

NSA Calls iPhone Users 'Zombies': Richard Stallman Was Right Again

According to a recent article on VentureBeat NSA calls iPhone users ‘zombies’ and Steve Jobs ‘Big Brother’. This one just reminds me so much of Mr Stallman's slightly controversial blog post "I'm not glad he's dead, but I'm glad he's gone". Seems like he was right again. Summary: Stallman: "Steve Jobs, the pioneer of the computer as a jail made cool, designed to sever fools from their freedom, has died." Support the Free Software Foundation now if you can. Because the state of affairs is worse than you think.

Encrypted Email and Communications with CryptoHeaven

The case for encrypted communications has been in the news quite a bit lately. Many ways to encrypt your email exist, with the use of PGP in the client and the ability for digital signing of messages to prove their authenticity and that they have not been tampered with being the most popular and probably oldest one. But there are a few more custom, and at a higher service level commercial, services on the market. Most of them are also using PGP but absolve the end user from the task of setting this up themselves.

Using Tor to View Restricted Video Sites Internationally

Disclaimer: Streaming movies and videos over the Tor network can slow it down significantly as capacities are donated and bandwidth varies hugely. You may get better performance by investing in a VPN.

How many times have you been stuck in another country unable to watch your favorite shows and channels? Or perhaps you don't reside there and want to watch them anyway, expat or other? Hulu, Spotify and BBC iPlayer all check IP addresses to ensure you are connecting from the country they are serving, in the BBC's case because they don't want you to get a free ride without a TV license.